Comelec urged to create ‘bawal bastos’ rule to protect women bets

On Tuesday, MANILA, Philippines — The Gabriela Women’s Party said it will push for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to develop guidelines against harassment of women political aspirants.

Sarah Elago, the first nominee of Gabriela, which is seeking a House comeback, made this known after their dialogue with Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia on social media regulations.

“Gabriela will also hold a dialogue with Comelec so ‘bawal ang bastos’ (no harassment allowed) in digital election campaigning,” Elago said in an interview at Palacio Del Gobernador in Manila.

Elago added this move seeks to protect women candidates against misogynistic attacks.

“The Gabriela Women’s Party received many reports of harassment of female candidates, who were victims of deepfakes and AI (artificial intelligence)…” she said.

Elago said this move was also in line with the Republic Act 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act, which covers gender-based sexual harassment in public spaces, educational or training institutions, workplaces, and even online spaces.

Furthermore, Elago, along with senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants of the Makabayan coalition, also pushed for Comelec to release guidelines against red-tagging of political candidates in the upcoming midterm polls.

They also renewed their call against Comelec’s resolution requiring the registration of private individuals’ personal online accounts who will campaign for political candidates on social media.

READ: Comelec may repeal rule on socmed accounts registration 

Earlier, Garcia admitted that it would be hard for Comelec to regulate the personal accounts of campaigners.

However, he remained firm that the Comelec reserves its right to act on instances where campaign materials breached common decency.

“The Comelec does not regulate the [political candidate’s] contents on social media, television, radio or whatever, except when it’s bastos (vulgar), immoral or unethical,” Garcia said in an ambush interview in Pasay City earlier Tuesday.

Garcia cited the case of a barangay election aspirant in 2023, whose campaign jingle contained innuendos.